The invention is related in general to the infrastructure of telecommunications networks and in particular to the integration of a cellular network base station and other telecommunications services.
The traditional infrastructure of a telecommunications network is such that the cellular network and its transmission network offer mobile communications services and, in addition to that, another transmission network and its terminals offer other telecommunications services. FIG. 1 illustrates the situation described above by showing a building with base stations (BS) on different floors F1 . . . F4 as the end-user""s environment, the base stations forming micro cells which serve the mobile subscribers moving within these cells. The base stations are typically connected in a star shape to a cross-connection device (XCD) located in the equipment space of the building and the cross-connection device connects the base stations further towards the trunk network. In addition to this, the same building can contain, for example, a LAN which typically includes a concentrator (C1) which is located in the equipment space and into which the LAN servers (SE1 and SE2) are typically connected. From the concentrator, base cable segments (BSG) are drawn to the floor-specific distributing frames, which comprise typically a lower level concentrator (C2) from which is drawn star-shaped cabling, that is, one cable for each device, such as a terminal (TE1), a printer (TE2), etc.
If one wants to use the same transmission network for offering telecommunications services other than the services of a cellular network, the said other telecommunications services are offered by using separate equipment, in which case the said equipment and possible weather-proof covering must be installed in the customer""s premises or the equipment space. This kind of solution is illustrated in FIG. 2, in which a separate cross-connection device (XCD) has been installed in the equipment space of the building, and through this device it is possible to connect, for example, LANs, fax machines or ISDN telephones in the same transmission network with the base stations. The cross-connection device separates the signals going to the base stations into the base station lines (BL) and the base station converts a signal to a suitable form for the radio path. A separate cross-connection device can also be located in connection with an individual base station. For example, the applicant has a product for the above-mentioned purpose which is marketed by the name DN2 (Digital Node 2). This device offers 2 Mbit/s connections and comprises cross-connection board units which each have a connection capacity of 2xc3x972 Mbit/s.
When using solutions such as the ones described above, a separate infrastructure must be built in addition to the cellular network or, at least, separate node equipment must be installed for implementing other telecommunications services, which is an expensive solution. It is also possible that limited space prevents the installation of separate equipment in connection with the base stations, because the base stations must be located in places where there is no room for (large) separate equipment. This problem will be aggravated in the future, because the size of cells and base stations decreases and the base stations will more often be located somewhere else than on the roofs of buildings, for example, in the customer premises. In this kind of situation, the services must have been implemented previously by using two separate transmission networks (see FIG. 1).
The known solutions also require long installation times, because in practice their installation requires several different installation teams. This also increases the total costs.
The difficulties in integration of services has also caused problems for the network management, especially when the same operator has wanted to offer as large a selection of services as possible.
The objective of the invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned disadvantages and to create a solution which makes it possible to integrate the base stations of a cellular network and other telecommunications services cost-effectively.
This objective can be accomplished by using the solution defined in the independent patent claim.
The idea of the invention is to integrate a base station of a cellular network with equipment offering other telecommunications services, so that they form a functional whole, by equipping the base station internally with units, which offer interfaces to different services, and with cross-connection functions between different units. These cross-connection functions can be implemented either by distributing them to all units or by centralizing them into a separate cross-connection unit in the base station.
Due to the solution in accordance with the invention, services can be implemented by using compact equipment which is easy and quick to install. Because the equipment can be installed in a space smaller than before, installation is possible in locations where the large equipment groups required by the known solutions could not have been installed (for example, public places).
The investments required for the equipment are smaller, because the functionalities common to the separate devices can be combined.
Due to the solution in accordance with the invention, it is easier for the operators (for example, cellular network operators) to offer additional services to their customers. Because all of the network management tasks, for example, can after this be implemented from one network management device, the operation and usage costs of the equipment are lower than before.